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U.S.: Terrorists may surgically implant bombs
Updated at 1:47 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government has warned domestic and international airlines that some terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into humans to carry out attacks.
A law enforcement source told CBS News that al Qaeda's Yemeni chapter, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, indicated in information, obtained by the intelligence community in recent months, an interest in recruiting a surgeon to implant explosives in the body of a suicide bomber to circumvent airport detection equipment and detonate an explosive device on an aircraft, investigative producer Pat Milton reports.
The source said that the sense is that the threat was "aspirational and not a hard threat." However, officials are concerned that some kind of plot is in the works by the Yemeni group, Milton reports. The law enforcement source told CBS News they feel the United States is due for an attempted attack.
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There is no intelligence pointing to a specific plot, but the U.S. shared its concerns last week with executives at domestic and international carriers, The Associated Press reported.
The intelligence on the interest in recruiting a surgeon, coupled with the Yemeni group's stated goal of getting past intrusive airport screening to set off a bomb on an airliner, a goal that has been discussed openly in the group's online magazine Inspire, led officials to put out an advisory, Milton reports.
Specifically, security personnel are being told to be aware of someone who may be acting unusual possibly due to an inserted device, which may be causing discomfort or pain.
The law enforcement source told CBS News that officials believe that the implantation tactic would be challenging for terrorists to successfully carry out.
They are aware of the 2009 attempt on the life of Saudi Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism operations, Milton reports. In that botched attempt, a Qaeda suicide bomber -- one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men -- inserted a pound of explosives and a detonator into his rectum and avoided detection by two sets of airport security equipment. The bomb exploded as the bomber met with the prince in a prearranged meeting, slightly injuring the prince but killing the bomber.
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People traveling to the U.S. from overseas may experience additional screening at airports because of the threat, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
"These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same activity at every international airport," TSA spokesman Nick Kimball said. "Measures may include interaction with passengers, in addition to the use of other screening methods such as pat-downs and the use of enhanced tools and technologies."
Placing explosives and explosive components inside humans to hide bombs and evade security measures is not a new idea. But there is new intelligence pointing to a fresh interest in using this tactic, a U.S. security official told the AP. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security information.
When the U.S. government receives information suggesting terror tactics that could threaten commercial aviation, the TSA alerts companies domestically and abroad. Last December, the U.S. received intelligence that al Qaeda's Yemen branch was considering hiding explosives inside insulated beverage containers to carry them on airplanes. That warning was shared with domestic and foreign airlines so that security could be on the lookout, even though there was no specific plot.
Airport security has increased markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. But terrorists remain interested in attacking aviation and continue to adapt to the new security measures by trying to develop ways to circumvent them.
The law enforcement source told CBS News that the Yemeni group has not been as disrupted as al Qaeda, Milton reports. The group has been suspiciously quiet in recent months, and summertime seems to be a popular time for terrorists to launch an attack.
Intel chair: Qaeda dead set on U.S. attacks
Last month, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said May's killing of Osama bin Laden hasn't cut down on al Qaeda's drive to carry out terror attacks within the United States.
The chairman, Republican Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, issued such a warning about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is strictly, or has been strictly focused on attacks in the U.S. homeland," Rogers told ABC News. "This morning, when you're over your breakfast cereal there is somebody in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula planning another attack in the U.S."
In the files that U.S. Navy SEALs recovered from bin Laden's Pakistani compound May 2, the intelligence community found further information that bin Laden urged his supporters to carry out attacks within U.S. borders, ABC reported.
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Also, The Associated Press has reported that bin Laden supported the Yemeni group's focus on smaller operations. According to bin Laden's private journal, he had urged Qaeda operatives to broaden its focus of U.S. targets to include smaller cities and other means of mass transportation such as trains instead of commercial airliners, the AP reported.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been linked to three specific incidents in the past two years: the Fort Hood shooting massacre allegedly carried out by Army psychologist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the attempted bombing of a commercial airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day and the foiled plot to detonate bombs hidden inside computer printers on planes over the United States.
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First the government fakes a terrorist attack by blowing up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to drag us into 2, 3, and more wars for profit and to steal the world's oil supplies by waging war in the name of hunting non-existent or propagandized bad-guys. (I'm sorry if you're one of those willfully blind sheeple choosing to ignore steel-framed bldg #7 freefalling into its own footprint as only happens in professional demolitions).
Then they fake the underwear bomber incident as witnessed by scores of folks who watched the state dept escort the bomber on-board the airplane, google Kurt Haskell, American attorney who witnessed the entire fake event.
Which per the plan leads to porno-radiating-scanners and sexual molestation pat-downs at the airports to begin with but eventually infiltrating all of America. All of it completely unnecessary and a gigantic waste of taxpayer money as 95% of all terrorists are on the CIA or Israeli intelligence payroll. Google Bin Laden ex-cia asset.
And now they come up with this stuff, undoubtedly with sinister intentions. I'm guessing forced rectal exams and worse will be next as the government turns ordinary Americans into would-be criminals in the name of protecting us and stealing every last god-given right to personal freedom we have.
There are no terrorists except the ones being paid by the various governments around the world with the sole intention of enslaving the human race, believe now or believe it when it visits you personally, as it surely will as long as we allow the evil people who've infiltrated our government to succeed assisted by you folks swallowing the entire 911 fake terrorist attack fairy-tale.
Lies, lies, and more lies.
Don't believe a word of it.
Well you got the first part right, the only thing that matters is the truth, which most folks don't have a clue of, including you and the rest of the trolls.
How's it feel to be ignorant? How's it feel to be conned like a carnie-mark sucker just off the bus?
Hey I've got this bridge in Alaska I can sell you cheap, step right up!
Go back to sleep.
The taxes of this country haven't been so low in 60 years, yet we hear from ***** McConnell that lower taxes produce jobs so we have keep the tax cuts permanent...which is a lie.
The truth is the rich have invested in cheating America from it's rightful due. This has effected the infrastructure, jobs...and festered animosity between common peoples....union vs non union, native born vs immigrants, public employee vs private, etc....
Wages for the middle class have been stagnent since Reagan took office. The rich take home twice what they did when Reagan took office. Jobs have steadily been flying out of the country..factories and all...in some cases factories disassembled and employees refused sales of....etc etc etc....
I wont be fooled by the antics of the GOP along with the Dems'.
WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED BY OUR VERY OWN LEADERS, IN CONGRESS, WHITE HOUSE, AND SUPREME COURT.
SINCE THIS IS THE CASE, AMERICA....IS AT WAR.
They have killed more of their own innocent people than all the US and Nato forces in Iraq and Afghanistan put together.
What you don't seem to get is that they set out deliberately to commit these atrocities; and don't give a second thought to the carnage they cause.
Maybe you should pray for a pox on the terrorists, or a plague of locusts or even the scourge of the black death, but you seem to be saying we might be "responsible" for this too.
We do not kill others because they do not believe as we do.
For our troops it's kill or be killed.
Sorry you cannot seem to see the difference.
You know, the editor who took the time to side with the TSA and post his own article trying to bring 'reason' to the us who vocally complained when scanners and pat downs started?
You know? All those people who saw through this sham of a security sham and warned you and everyone about this very topic happening and what would we do then?
Do we have any real reporting or real news agencies or is everything entertainment and opinion these days?
Follow the money from the scanners, the resistance to institute criminal profiling (race has nothing to do with it) and the government's justification to employ so many TSA agents and THERE is your story.
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are they really that much more sick and twisted than our 21'st century ideals?
I want to know what's being done to protect passengers in the security queue (from terrorists). That's really the only place in an airport where I feel unsafe.
If you are going by what you read in here good luck with the rest of reality
Being truly informed cannot be dubbed as being in denial of anything. To take in the KoolAid propaganda machine of the United States is, and always has been, the road to misinformation.